[Innervation of the heart from an abdominal plexus in man]

The authors studied 43 necropsy specimens from adult individual by dissection under a stereomicroscope and by staining methods (Cajal-De Castro and Palmgren silver impregnations, Kluver Barrera and Pal-Weigert for myelinated fibers, and van Gieson and Azan trichromic methods). They suggest the presence of a direct nervous connection between the hepatic plexus (celiac plexus) and the high atrium via the left branches of the hepatic artery and portal vein, venous ligament, left hepatic vein, and v. cava inferior, passing through the foramen for the v. cava. This connection is made by very fine nerves from the upper part of the venous ligament until the left atrium, which generally are only visible on the microscopic level.